Outlander/Bridgerton

Outlander and Bridgerton both share contemporaneity: each one is a drama based on a 20- and 21st-century historical romance. However, they present quite different concerns; the latter irrevocably bound up with connections to COVID-19 and the understandable escapism the pandemic prompted. Outlander places the viewer squarely in the position of time traveller: through protagonist Claire, we see a glimpse of what it would be like to arrive in a distant past. Therefore, we appreciate the strangeness of her new clothes, and recognise the modern touches she adds to her own garments later in the series. In some way, this mirrors the experience of dressing in vintage clothes or attempting to convey an appreciation for a particular era. As key signifiers of a production’s aesthetic, costumes bear the brunt of presenting these elements to an audience, and the significant extent to which their influence travelled from screen to street – and vice versa – is discussed here.